Miles 1692.0 to 1712.5. Tentsite by dirtroad to forest camp.

We slept well in Oregon. :-) And we sleep in because it was our longest day yet yesterday and we feel like we deserve it. Another reason is that we don't want to make it all the way to Ashland today. We decided a few weeks ago that we are going to try to arrive in towns early in the day rather than in the evening. This way for a zero we only need one overnight stay in town and can save some money.

We leave our tentsite around 8am, before Sababa, and hike quickly to the first water source where, as it turns out, both NOBOs and SOBOs have gathered for a rather large breakfast party. There are at least 10 hikers there, and I don't know when was the last time we saw so many hikers in one place. We take our time filtering water, eating breakfast, Dario even eats Ramen noodles for breakfast. Two packs. Looks like his upset stomach is no longer causing him any trouble.

We eventually get going again, before any other NOBOs, and enjoy being in Oregon. I want to say it's quite different to NorCal, but it's actually not. Maybe less steep. Yes, that could be. Maybe a little greener, yes, definitely. The forest are a lush green color, but I guess you wouldn't really be able to tell that you're hiking in a different state.

We meet everyone again for lunch at the next water source. There is also a very courageous deer there, enjoying her lunch right next to us. The deer generally seem less afraid and more trusting the further north we go. Aardvark and Switchbacks, another Israeli we've met, already go ahead while Sababa takes it easy and stays put. We keep meeting SOBOs, I guess this is the time and place we get to cross most of them. And they're a great source of information! One of them tells us about upcoming trail magic, sodas in a cooler and we couldn't get more excited! We basically run up the trail to the trail magic where Aardvark and Switchbacks are - of course - enjoying the fresh and cool drinks. The view is also quite nice. Is the smoke finally lifting?

They soon leave again as they still plan to make it to Ashland tonight. It's already 4pm and takes 10 more miles until they will reach the highway to Ashland. Luckily, we are in no rush as our selected campsite is only 5 miles further up the trail. When we finally reach it we are quite groggy, after all we pulled another 20 miler today! We chose a nice site and set up camp under the sky. Sababa only joins us when we are already done with dinner. Luckily we get AT&T cell coverage here and watch another one or two Friends episodes. We really look forward to reaching Ashland in the morning. We booked a motel with pool and hope to be able to relax as well as get everything done in time. We need to buy some new gear, do the resupply and shipping for all of Oregon and of course do our laundry. So as usual, a lot to get done in ~24h!

Miles 1665.9 to 1692.0. Kangaroo Spring to tentside by a dirt road.
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Today we could finally leave California and enter Oregon. After over 3 months California will be in the past. We have been more and more looking forward to crossing the border in the last few days. But that would mean a 26 mile hike today, which would be our new record.

To accomplish this, we start early today. The whole smoke situation is finally way better today. On our first uphill climb, we can even see Mount Shasta in the distance, clearly and majestically!

After 1.5 hours we reach a dirt road where we saw on our hiking app that there is a spring right next to it. As we arrive, we realize we are not the only ones here. There is also Aardvark, a 20ish year old girl from Chicago and Switchbacks, a cool guy from Israel, who have been cowboy camping next to the dirt road. We talk a bit with these guys and then quickly fill up our bottles at the spring. When we come back, there is also Sababa again, sitting with the others.

From the road it is now a fairly steep climb for the next 3 or 4 miles all the way up. California is testing us the last time before it lets us leave! But the climbing isn’t as terrible as the day before and soon it is over.

For lunch we found a spot on Guthooks, our hiking app, where there supposedly should be cell reception. And indeed, there is cell reception and furthermore about 1 million wasps, which is really annoying. After a while Sababa joins us here and gets his share of the wasp invasion.

The afternoon is more or less a race towards Oregon. We keep on leapfrogging with Sababa, Switchback and Aardvark, always have a little chat and then continue racing to the Oregon border.

We start counting down the remaining miles... Only 5 more miles now! The first three are steeply down all the way. But we are starting to feel tired by now.
„How far is it still?“, Maya keeps asking. 3 more miles, one down, 2 up. It is now 6.30 pm and it is getting closer to sunset. Ok, we are at the lowest point now. Only 2 more miles up.

There are now several small signs at the trees where people have been writing sayings on them. „Almost in freaking Oregon!“, „Close to leaving Northern California“, „Only 1 mile!“.
Oh yes, only 1 mile. But here we have to fill our water bottles for the last time in California so we have enough water for tomorrow. The plan is to sleep right after the border, only 0.3 miles away there is a nice spot according to Guthooks.
Only 0.5 miles left. It gets steeper and darker very quickly by now. I am completely drenched in sweat but keep on hiking faster and faster. 0.2 miles, 0.1... There!! We see it! And Aardvark next to the tree with the border sign. Five more meeeeeters... Done!

We all hug each other firmly, sipping Aardvark’s whiskey and start writing in the provided trail register next to the border when first Switchback arrives, followed by Sababa only a couple of minutes later.
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Maya and I take some pictures together then some group pictures with our friends.
After all is done we hike the remaining 0.3 miles up to our campsite, pitch our tent and have dinner together with Sababa and Aardvark. First night in Oregon, finally we are here! Oregon - it is going to be great!

Miles 1630.6 to 1649.5. Campsite on a ridge to Grider Creek campground.

Today was a bad day. A really bad day. But let’s start at the beginning.

We start our morning rather late and get up at 6:30am. Shortly after the Canadians who were apparently sleeping some miles behind us pass us and are now in front of us. Only a couple of minutes later also Tacos and Foodfight catch us and pass - goodbye.

But then, 20 minutes later, we all are set and ready to go. Today is fairly easy. First we have to climb about one mile but from there it is all the way down, for more than 25 miles until Seiad Valley, where we would actually like to stay over night.

And so we start, do the one mile climb without any problems and after one more hour of easy hiking we reach a spring where we fill up our water and have breakfast. A lovely and curious deer keeps us company.

Shortly after breakfast my stomach starts feeling weird and it is getting worse and worse. I am nauseous now and feel like I am about to throw up. We continue to hike, it is now getting warmer and warmer and then I actually have to throw up.
We rest for about 15 minutes and then try to continue. I still feel sick. The path is now going downward very steeply, the ground is more or less sandy and does not provide a lot of grip for the shoes.. And then it happens. I roll my ankle and fall over. That did hurt, damn it! Luckily nothing really happened, but my ankle is hurting badly. Nevertheless we continue descending, because what else can we do? I am still feeling sick, my ankle hurts and the trail is still going downwards very steeply. And boom, it happens again, I roll my ankle again, of course it is the same one I rolled before, but this time a lot worse. What a shitty day! Damn this trail, what are we still doing here, I swear and just wish to be on a beach or somewhere where I don’t torture myself every day. But after 10 minutes I get myself together again and stand up only to find something looking like a spike looking out of my upper leg. I pull it out and realize that half a bee comes with it… Of course, when I was falling I must have hit a bee! What the f***! This day is one of the worst so far. But we still continue (what other options do we have) and as for now I don’t fall again until we reach a river with a nice bridge where Tacos and Foodfight are having a lunch break. We join them, tell them about my shitty day and relax next to the water. After one hour of relaxing and even having a quick bath in the ice cold river, I finally start to feel better. I am even able to eat some ramen noodles again and the cold water helps to cool down my hurt ankle.
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Approx 30 minutes after Tacos and Foodfight have left we also hit the trail again. It is clear that we won’t make it to Sead Valley tonight since we are way behind today’s schedule. But anyways, we try to get to a camping place 6 miles before Seiad Valley. It is only 7 miles in the afternoon, everything goes straight, we see another baby deer and arrive at the camping place about 5:30 pm. We stroll around a bit as we are not sure where to best pitch our tent, when we see a red car and a woman standing next to it. As we get closer the woman starts to look familiar...Is that…? No, tast can’t be her, or is it really her?!
It turns out it is her! It’s Frodo, the famous trail angel we were staying with for two days before we started the trail! So awesome! She is waiting here at the parking lot for her husband Scout, who is hiking this section with a couple and should also arrive within the hour. We keep talking to Frodo for some more minutes, she gives us each a plum and then we continue searching for tent space. We find a good one and are soon joined by Tacos and Foodfight.

We end the day with a nice bath in the river next to our tent spot and a bond fire and then cuddle into our sleeping bags. Unfortunately the night is not very quiet, as one of the RVs also camping here has its electricity generator on half of the night until Maya runs over to tell them to turn this fucking machine out of hell off, which they do (for one hour at least).

Miles 1599.7 to 1610.4. Etna to Shelly Meadows campground.

Today we sleep in until 8:30 am as we decided yesterday with Tacos & Foodfight to head out together around noon. Tacos needed some convincing to continue hiking as for his part he would be ready to go home now. He explains that he's already dealt with all the issues that made him do the trail in the first place and is at peace with himself again. But he agrees to hike until Ashland (first town stop in Oregon) where his dad and brother will visit him anyways. The two invite us for breakfast again - thank you guys so much, you and the breakfast are awesome!

Around noonish the two are back from doing their resupply and the Hiker Hut’s owner gives us a lift to the trail head. We start hiking and realize that the weather today is not that bad, still some smoke left but already way better than expected. We planned to do only 11 miles today, so nothing too difficult. The scenery is nice, we pass ridges, have stunning views and then are in another burnt area for a couple of miles.

When we started the PCT, those areas felt kind of strange but special. But by now we must have passed more than 30 burnt areas already and it is still sad but one gets used to it. Early in the evening we reach our camp spot before the others, pitch our tent, filter water and then Tacos and Foodfight arrive. Shortly after them we are joined by the Canadians and Snowwhite, have a bond fire, good talks and then go to sleep. Tomorrow we want to do more than 20 miles, let’s see how that will work!

Miles 0. Etna

When we wake up at 8am everyone else is already active, either having breakfast or preparing to go into town for shopping. We want to hit the trail again today and therefore start packing our stuff together. Just when we finish packing in our tent we hear someone talking to us: “Would you guys like to join us for breakfast? We stay in a room and have breakfast included. But as it is way too much, it would be a pity to throw it away.” "Oh yes, for sure", we both agree. The guy’s name is actually Tom aka Tacos and is a fellow thruhiker. He is hiking with his girlfriend, Liz aka Foodfight, they are from LA and a super nice couple  our age. And the breakfast is very delicious. There is a huge omelette with hashbrowns, fruits, juice, coffee etc.

We have a great conversation with Tacos and Foodfight and are very easily convinced to stay one more night and spend some time with them. So we pitch our tent again on the same spot, install everything again and then the four of us go for a ride with the bikes the hiker hut provides to the public pool in Etna. It is very smokey again today I realize, when we ride the bikes on Etna’s streets. After a couple of minutes we arrive at the pool and instantly jump into the refreshing water. That is amazing! We really enjoy pools everytime we are in one! But there is also work to do. Maya’s sleeping pad has a hole somewhere and is deflating every night. So the pool is actually the perfect place to look for the hole. First of all the mattress can be used as a floating device and secondly it is easy to find the hole because it is the source of tiny bubbles we can spot on the surface. And tadaaa, with Liz’s help we find the hole and fix it.

After spending about two hours we start to getting hungry (or hangry) and ride over to the place we had dinner at yesterday. And who is sitting there as well? The three Canadians who started the same date as we did, Double D, his girlfriend Arms and their friend Paige aka Gourmet! We haven’t seen these guys since Bishop and are super happy to see each other again. And only a couple of minutes later we see Monica passing by in the street, storm out and say hello to her. What an incredible day!

It turns out that the Canadians will also stay at the Hiker Hut and also Snowwhite, another Canadian whom we've met multiple times will stay there. Only Monica is going to either another place or will even continue today hiking.

When we come back to the Hiker Hut we have some wine with Tacos & Foodfight and play with the neighbor's dog.
In the evening the four of us head over to a nice restaurant and Tacos invites to for some drinks. We have an amazing time at the restaurant. As we are walking back to the Hiker Hut Paige passes us with her bike, coming from the Dollar General with some beers. Maya calls out to her and yells at her to turn back around. So she turns around,  driving in serpentine like lines and yelling: "Oh I had a couple of beers". Next second she flies thru the air, does kind of a looping and lands save and sound on her feet on the boardwalk! What just happened?! Haha, circus like show although she was very lucky not to have hurt herself badly.

We continue our way home and soon cuddle into our sleeping bags for some more Friends episodes, and then fall deeply asleep.

Miles 1260.1 to 1274.8. Lookout Rock Camp to Sunset Camp.

In the morning the alarm clock goes off at 5.30 am as we planned the day before to see the sunrise from Lookout Rock. So we walk the short path up to the rock and find Flamin Hot sleeping next to it...That guy! He must have hiked over 25 miles yesterday to catch us here! So cool, we all think and wake him up to take some pictures on the rock with the three of us.

And indeed, it is one of the most spectacular sunrises on the PCT so far! We stay for about 30 minutes, take pictures and talk.

Later we hike on, reunited and fully motivated. Today it is only about 9 miles until we reach the road to Bucks Lake, a small town lying on the shore of the name giving lake.

We all are not sure if it is worth hitching in there, as we are already way behind schedule and you never know how long it takes to get a hitch.
But Flamin Hot convinces us to get a burger or something nice to eat there. And when we reach the street it only takes us 2 minutes to get a hitch. Sweatheart and Flamin Hot are ahead of us and have to be already in town. So the guys giving us a hitch doesn’t know where to drop us off and we pass by the restaurant where our two friends are sitting on the porch. But somehow we manage to get a hitch back and get a burger and a pizza.

Later we all head over to the lake and go swimming in the rather cold water. And it gets better, a friendly guy sitting there with his family offers us some fresh cherries and Corona beers that Flamin Hot and I gladly jug down.

Back on trail we still have to hike 8 to 10 more miles. We pass two wildlife documentalists who tell us that they hide wildlife cameras in the woods and that they always catch bears, deers and sometimes even mountain lions! What a nice reminder of where we are actually sleeping everyday - but so far nothing really happened to us. So we hike on and after 8 more miles meet Happy Hour, a fellow elderly hiker we have been leap frogging with in the last days. He is preparing dinner and is almost ready to go to sleep. He's found himself an absolutely beautiful sleeping spot on a ridge with stunning views over the valley.

He wants us to stay here as well and tells us about a meteorite shower tonight but we think it is better to push on for a bit. And so we do, well at least for 2 more minutes when we meet to SOBOs (hikerish for South Bounders, aka hikers hiking south, so from Canada to Mexico) and keep on talking with them for too long. The tell us that in Belden (one day further from here and our next town stop) a huge Funk festival is taking place at the moment and that we really should go as the entrance for PCTers is free. We will see, we thought, it really depends when we are arriving.

We then watch a beautiful and simultaneously terrifying scenery as the sun is almost down and presents itself in a totally red color, immersing the smoky surroundings in a eery kind of way. In in the middle there is a big mountain sticking out. Moooordoooor has risen again, we both think - and indeed, the whole thing could easily play part as the setting of Lord of the Rings.

We realize that we are indeed really tired already and there is such an amazing camping spot on the ridge (no I don’t refer to Sauron’s evil eye), so we decide to stay on the same ridge like Happy Hour, only 100 meters further away. We are hurriedly pitching our tents when I suddenly feel that something is wrong with my stomach - I feel kind of sick and half an hour later I am already lying in my sleeping bag feeling fevery and cold. Maybe Sauron’s eye caught me (or my stomach) but let’s not hope so... After a while I fall asleep while the others are still talking, admiring the spectacular surroundings and finishing up the last of Flamin Hot's pizza which he's packed out from Bucks Lake.

Miles 1239.5 to 1260.1. Bushcamp to Lookout Rock camp.
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We half expected to be woken by some animals during the night because the comments on the Guthooks App mentioned more than once that bears and deers had been heard and seen previously at this campsite. But the only animals we saw, heard and were annoyed by were the wasps. There have been many lately and even though they are not aggressive I can't help feeling threatened by them.

We rise early. There is still no sight of Flamin Hot or Sarah, but we are sure they (or at least Flamin Hot) will turn up again eventually.
First the trail leads us downhill through the forest and past a few streams with flowing water. We fill up and have breakfast beside one of them. Today we really look forward to reaching the bottom of the mountain where the Middle Fork Feather River flows through and where we plan to take a lengthy swimming and laundry break. When we finally reach it it's the perfect weather for a bath in a cold river. The sun is out, we have been sweating even though we were descending and always in the shade of the woods. The bath is so refreshing, ice cold actually! But we really enjoy it, we lie between the rocks, get rid of the dirt on our bodies and wash our clothes simultanously.

Sweatheart soon takes off while we stay put a little longer and tell her that we will catch her at the next water source. We are not especially looking forward to the afternoon. 7 more miles, but more than 3000 feet up (11.2 km, over 900m in altitude) and it's hot and our packs are heavy! But we have no choice, and start climbing. I am happy to be distracted by a crime audiobook I am currently listening to. It makes it easier and we actually make good time, passing Sweatheart who is cooling her foot at the next water source. But still, the climb is strenuous and feels neverending.

Up up up we go and finally reach the last water for the day at the Lookout Spring where we fill up our bottles for the night, and climb the last meters to the top of the mountain. The view is incredible! All the smoke has gone, enabling us to see for miles and miles. Endless stretches of forest and peaks, the sun is soon setting and the sky looks absolutely stunning! We settle on Lookout Rock and take it all in. That's what makes it all worth it. No pain, no gain. Views like that give us the energy to keep hiking. And no more smoke! We are loving it! We have trouble leaving the place to get to our camp for the night. When we are almost there, only 0.2 miles from Lookout Rock we stumble upon trail magic! In the shape of a box filled with books! How awesome is this! There is also a trail register where we look for all our friends' names who passed here previously and also sign it. These trail registers are located all over the PCT, this is like the 50th or so we've signed, just FYI.

We set up camp, then I go back to the books box and grab the lightest book there is, and start reading the novel after dinner, in my sleeping bag. Dinner consists of two Knorr dishes (Fettuccini Parmesan) and a Mountain House meal desert: Apple Cobbler Mix. It looks quite disgusting once it's "cooked", or let's say "rehydrated", but it tastes quite good. We share it with Sweatheart and tell stories. She is so lovely, we are so happy to have met her! I really hope her foot will get better soon. But let's face it, hiking 20 miles a day probably isn't helping...:-( Flamin Hot is still not here, and we just hope he's doing well and catching up soon.

Miles 1207.3 to 1219.7. Cowboy camp next to Packer Lake Lodge to A-Tree Spring camp.

It is still darkish as we wake up in the woods next to the Packer Lake Lodge. The night was alright although Maya and I both felt a bit exposed like we always feel when cowboy camping aka just sleeping in your sleeping bag on the mattress without any tent at all.
When everybody is awake we pack our things together and head straight to the Lodge again to find Krista doing her magic in the kitchen. It turns out she prepared two frittatas and freshly baked scones for the five of us! Wow, and further there are some delicious cherries and hot coffee for us!
Breakfast was never better on trail before and we all enjoy eating all this amazing food and the interesting conversation with interesting Krista.

But then it is time for us to leave and we say goodbye and thank you so much to Krista and hit the trail again.
Right after we leave we meet some trail maintenance volunteers and then start climbing for the next 4 miles. The trail is oh so dusty, with every step you take a massive cloud of dust spreads all over us.

On top of the fucker, sorry I mean mountain of course we have a break and wait for the others to arrive.
Flamin Hot is the first to arrive and joins us.
Several minutes later Sweatheart and Sarah also arrive on top but decide to push on, as Sarah’s feet are not doing well at all and she wants to hike slower than the others.

When we continue to hike it does not take long until we meet Sweatheart again, sitting on the dusty ground and eating some cookies she got from passing day hikers. Nice as she is, she offers us each a cookie  which we gladly accept.
We hike for another 2 hours until we finally meet Sarah again who is sitting on a log and reading a book since she had been hiking way faster than expected.

At about 6pm we reach our campsite and discover some more (section) hikers already camping there next to a dirt road. Maya and I find a spot next to some bushes and after pitching the tent realize that this must be a deer's nest. Everything smells like in a horse stall and soon we actually spot the deer very close to our tent.
Before having dinner we all wash ourselves in the ice cold spring which is only a couple of meters away. Close to the spring is the Korean guy we met several times and Flamin Hot asks him to have dinner with us, which he seems to find a good idea because he nods, gets up and follows him over.

So the five of us and the Korean who hardly speaks a word of English have dinner together. As always Flamin Hot puts a lot of hot sauce over his dish (that is way his name is Flamin Hot). The Korean spots the sauce and using Google translate asks for the very hot sauce. Flamin Hot hands him over the sauce and the Korean uses almost half of the sauce. Flamin Hot watches this scene with a sense of horror, knowing that normally some drops of this devil's elixir turns your food into something which may come directly out of the burning flames of hell.
But the Korean eats his almost burning food as though it is nothing special, which leaves Flamin Hot rather speechless. Well, we all agree, we now found the real Flamin Hot guy, original Flamin Hot’s new name from now on will just have to be “Regular Hot”. Korea 1, Mexico 0.